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Review is still a work in progress. Some paragraphs might slightly change. Screenshots will be added shortly. Please don't mind grammar or spelling errors for now.
Strong in places, though, antiquated
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FireFly Studios has found its audience throughout its long-running history of the beloved castle-building simulator. Early entries were both commercial and critical success but in the past decade, it took too many wrong turns. Warlords is no exception. It may hold up better than Stronghold 3 or Crusader II could ever do, but in the flesh, there are some caveats that seriously hurt it. This time around, Stronghold exits the European medieval to focus on East Asian civilizations. With around 1800 years of history to cover, choose between the Japanese, Mongol, Chinese, or Vietnamese lords and partake in your usual Stronghold schtick.
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Embracing the new setting with open arms
The choice of setting is a breath of fresh air for the series, as the previous games were mostly focused on medieval European architecture and culture. it’s certainly commendable that the developers chose to tackle a less familiar historical and geographical area for the series. The campaigns are laid out through a rather long period of Asian history including the rulers mentioned above.
Each of them has his own respective campaign that progressively introduced and familiarize players with different aspects and mechanics of Warlords. Along these, there's one economic campaign that solely centers around the management of your castle.
A fun Castle Sim/RTS hybrid...
if it wasn't stifled by all-things dated about it. All the flaws I'm about to break down here might sound like minute issues that are bordering on nitpicking but eventually, they pile on each other and dull the whole experience. The bread and butter of the game are about laying siege to cities while managing your own city for war, and the general wellbeing of its population. Building and defending castles are still a thrill.
The Chinese invention of gunpowder prepared the grounds for an exciting new era of weaponry in Stronghold series. Aside from regular troops and siege equipment of the era, players are now able to produce gunpowder-based weaponry to blow enemies sky-high. One look at the new suicidal units is all it takes to fall in love with them. On a related note to the military troops, they now have body collisions. Players can now use this feature to actually put up a fight on walls or create chokepoints without letting enemies through.
Firefly claimed AI has been greatly improved with several videos showcasing the new dynamic and non-cheating systems before release. Now that I've got a good grasp of it, I must say that AI is serviceable but the improvements are not a big leap forward. It takes into account the map settings and space it is situated in, building its castle based on that. Also, they interact with the new warlords' system based on their needs and resources at their disposal. It all sounds fairly exciting, however, AI relies aggressively and rapidly on spamming buildings and marching their troops toward the enemy castles from the get-go (or once the peace treaty is over).
Another annoyance is their pathfinding. Units might zigzag through a straight, obstacle-free path for no reason. Or take a few steps back and continue down the way they were already going. This not only slows their movement down but also is troublesome during sensitive battles. Imagine when arrows are raining down on your painfully slow samurais and they decide to boogie dance meanwhile.
Unit formations still serve no purpose, disband option has been removed, the option to train units in bulk is taken away, castle building lost some of its elements and is slightly simplified. However, the series isn't making a return empty-handed. Firstly, the new titular Warlords system adds depth to just taking over estates. Players can either demand obedience from warlords by force or work out a peaceful solution using diplomacy Points earned from consulates or embassies (replacing the traditional Honor system). Each warlord under players' influence is still controlled by AI, yet offers a unique perk as well as a set of edicts ready to be issued using the points. They are able to send in resources along with military troops if you invest enough points in upgrading them. Overall, this new system is advantageous to turn the tides of the war in your favor.
Dated and flat
Visuals
At a glance, albeit saturated, art direction is befitting the new setting. The castle life is vibrant and full of energy just as ever. Lots of effort is put into making distinct and charming animations for each type of unit and peasant, even though they are as stiff as they were in the previous entries, if not degraded from the modern gaming perspective. From a technical standpoint, it'll probably age even worse than the older titles. Grass pops out when fully zoomed out, textures are flat and look blurry here and there (Castle walls and buildings are in a better shape). I'm not aware if Firefly is using a new engine or has updated the new one but for what it's worth, needs a serious shake-up.
Sounds
Where's that quality voice acting we had the pleasure to hear in early Strongholds? Now, it is as stereotypical as it gets. The Asian/English accent feels forced and faked while I'm sure a few natives could've certainly nailed the job. On the other hand, the Asian-tinged musical score is neither awful nor great, it sits right in the middle. I'm no expert in the field but the fusion of Chinese/Japanese folklore, throat singing, and modern instruments sticks out in the mind.
Technical
????Specs
Ryzen 5 3500X - GTX1050 2GB - 16GB DDR4 RAM
- 1680x1050 - Steady 60 FPS only in campaigns
- Performance heavily suffers in skirmishes as there's more freedom to building and unit producing, cutting FPS down in half, if not more. Probably the engine is to blame since the older titles fall under the same issue.
⚠️Bugs & Issues
- No hotkey rebinds as the time of writing this review
- A few instances of freezes and CTDs before release.
The bottom line
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All in all, Warlords is a coin toss at best. You're either a build-and-fight strategy enthusiast who wouldn't care much about technical quality. The simple gameplay loop might entertain you, but not for long. Or like me, you can't stand the poor alteration this franchise had undergone in the past decade. The $30 price tag isn't justified for the content available at launch nor the quality it provides.
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